Rafael Nadal clinched his first Hamburg Masters title in an epic 3 hour battle in which the Spaniard won 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 over the defending champion and world number 1 Roger Federer.

This title marked the last of all the major clay court tournaments left for the young Spaniard to win and his is 26th title of his career. In an amazingly tough and tense afair, Nadal came back from 5-1 down to clinch the first set, while Federer also let an advantage slip in the second only to clinch the set in the tie-break. Rafael Nadal then broke twice in the final to take the title.

The defeat to Federer will be a huge blow to an already tough season for the Swiss star, Nadal has now beaten Federer on eight of the pair’s previous nine meetings on clay. Federers solitary victory over the Spaniard came in last year’s Hamburg final when Federer ended Nadal’s 81 match winning streak on clay. However today it was Nadal’s turn to break Federers record unbeaten run of 41 matches unbeaten on German soil, which includes titles at Hamburg and Halle.

If Federer wasn’t feeling the pressure before, he certainly will now. If Andy Murray had thrown away 5-1 lead, the British press would have labled him a bottler, this is exactly what Federer is when it comes to facing Rafael Nadal on Clay, even going all the way back to their very first match in the French Open final when Rafael burst onto the stage, he had chances to win the win the match, but he bottled it!

Most of the top players will take next week off in preperations for French Open which starts